


Mrs. Gray, in Scotland Yard, with a Map

by inmyriadbits



Category: Bletchley Circle
Genre: Bank Robbery, Bechdel Test Pass, Case Fic, Female Friendship, Gen, Mystery, Stealth Crossover
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-23
Updated: 2013-12-23
Packaged: 2018-01-05 17:26:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,762
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1096557
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inmyriadbits/pseuds/inmyriadbits
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Susan Gray, in Scotland Yard, with a map. The bank robbers didn't stand a chance.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mrs. Gray, in Scotland Yard, with a Map

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MadameHardy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MadameHardy/gifts).



> Dear Madame, 
> 
> Thank you for such a hilarious and inspiring Dear Yuletide Author letter! I hope this appeals to your rococo tastes, as I greatly enjoyed writing it. 
> 
> Sincerely,  
> Your Mystery Writer
> 
> P.S. Apologies for the stealth crossover; I simply couldn't resist. Extra points if you know the reference!  
> P.P.S. Spoiler alert: the title is misleading! It's not just Susan alone. But the title would be far too long and no longer a Clue joke if I'd bothered to name it accurately.

Millie burst through the double doors at Scotland Yard, rushing to where Lucy sat book-ended by Susan and Jean.

"Darling, are you hurt?" Millie asked, catching up Lucy's hands. Lucy looked calm, but she almost always did.

"No, I'm alright. Just a bit of a scare," she said quietly, and looked Millie in the eye. Now that she did, Millie thought Lucy looked more angry than upset. That was good.

"Excellent -- we can start now that you're here," Susan said, like that made any sort of sense.

"Start what?"

"Solving the case, of course."

"Oh, of course," Millie replied.

"We have plenty to work with. This is the fourth bank these criminals have robbed in a month, and they made the mistake of running into Lucy this time." The comment had a faint note of the pride all of them felt over Lucy's remarkable mind. It made Lucy sit up just a touch straighter.

Lucy had taken employment as a bank teller in the spring, two days after petitioning for a divorce from her horrid husband. She had been working today when the current plague of London banks had walked in -- and chosen her booth for the stick-up.

"Aye, but there's no need to go reinventing the wheel just yet, love," Jean said. "We're waiting for the deputy commissioner to come back," she explained to Millie. "He's letting us take a look at the files. Said he owes us one."

"That's for damn certain," Millie said. The other three had been far more forgiving of Deputy Commissioner Wainwright, but Millie wasn't one to let anybody off the hook so easily, even if he had cleared her for shooting a man. Wainwright owed a few more favors their direction, whether he knew it yet or not.

"Millie," Lucy said, and Millie subsided.

"Very well, then, go on."

"What we know is just the usual information, from the wireless and the papers, but it's somewhere to start," Jean said. "This is the fourth robbery. Five men come in, hold up a bank teller, then run off before the police can respond."

"That doesn't give us much to go on, does it?"

"We know they're men, we know how many -- or, at least how many go inside the bank, I suppose there could be others. But are there any other patterns? Where are they targeting? When do the robberies happen? Where do the men go after? Do they all split off and join up somewhere, or only meet for the robberies?"

"Follow the money," Jean said, practically. "If they all split the stolen cash at the bank, there’s no reason to take the risk and meet up again. But if they just have one man with the bag, no way the others will let him alone for long."

“That’s a good point,” Lucy said. “They only had one bag.”

"Ah, Deputy Commissioner," Jean said suddenly.

Millie turned, startling a bit. Wainwright stood behind her, looking something between exasperated and unsurprised.

"Good, you're here," Susan said. Wainwright opened his mouth to respond -- likely some pleasantry or other because he didn't know better -- and Susan blithely cut across him, already heading for the man's door. "May we use your map now?"

Wainwright closed his mouth, visibly adjusting. "Yes, do come in, ladies," he said, unlocking his office. He smiled wryly when Millie shot him a smirk as she passed through the door.

Susan headed straight for the map, and Millie followed. Jean took the files from Wainwright's hands, passing the first document to Lucy, who immediately began paging through the report.

"Which banks, Lucy?" Millie asked, picking up four pins from a nearby tray and starting with Lucy's branch, which she already knew. She pinned the rest of the locations as Lucy recited their addresses.

"Good," Susan said. "Time and date next -- Jean?"

Jean had the other three files already spread out, neatly shifting Wainwright’s desk accessories to one side. Lucy sat in one of the visitors' chairs, still reading intently. Turned around as she was to hear Jean's response, Millie saw Wainwright sigh, shake his head, and sink silently into his chair. He clasped his hands and leaned back, chair creaking as he watched them work.

Jean handed four squares of paper to Millie, with times and date written on each. Millie set to pinning. 

"All of the robberies seemed to happen just after noon -- within ten minutes, actually," Jean observed. "That's a bit odd, isn't it?"

"What do you mean?" Susan asked.

"Well, lots of people go to the bank on their lunch hours. Wouldn't you try for a robbery at some other time, when there are less people around?"

"I'd personally find out when a big cash shipment had come in, and go for it then," Millie said.

"They can’t have been planning that way," Lucy offered. "The second job, they only made off with a little more than a hundred pounds."

"So crime doesn't pay after all, is what you're saying," Jean put in.

"Not exactly," Lucy corrected absently, still reading. "They made over a thousand today."

Millie whistled. "Not bad for a trip to the bank on your lunch hour."

"On your lunch hour..." Susan repeated slowly. Millie knew that voice. Little bells were going off in Susan's brain, or Millie would eat her hat. "All just past noon -- do you think they could actually be doing this on their lunch hours?"

Jean's eyebrows raised. "Not a bad theory, that. I can't think of another reason they'd be working on such a timetable."

A thoughtful quiet fell, the continuous rustle of paper sounding in the background as Lucy read steadily through the files. 

Susan began pacing in her familiar way, brow wrinkling as she thought. “If they are robbing banks on their lunch hours, with such little time between noon and the start of the robberies, they must all work in a nearby area.”

“No, look at the spread,” Millie said, waving at the map. One pin was in Westminster, and another was clear over by the Tower of London. “There’s no way they’re coming from the same place every time, not on foot.”

Susan frowned. “If they don’t work together, it must be incredibly tricky to coordinate the timing.”

Lucy set aside the last folder. “I’ve got it all now,” she said, and they turned to her eagerly.

“Did you find any connections?”

“The police are mostly working on fingerprinting and trying to locate the guns,” Lucy said, getting the distant look she got when searching her memory.

“Naturally,” Jean said.

“The gun used on the teller is always the same by description,” Lucy continued, “Shotgun, sawn-off barrel, wooden stock, no other identifying marks. Although that’s not true, exactly; there were letters on the one I saw, L-I-S, engraved like initials. The other four carry pistols, which no one has seen close enough to identify.”

Deputy Commissioner Wainwright, Millie saw, had begun to take notes.

“Always five men, always in black masks. Always on foot, always leave in five different directions. That’s all I found in the files. The police don’t have very much evidence, and the eyewitnesses seem to contradict each other on the other details.” Lucy looked apologetically at Wainwright for the implied criticism, but he waved off her concern.

"Tell us what _you_ saw, then," Susan prompted. "I'd rather rely on you than a dozen witnesses, in any case."

Lucy closed her eyes, focusing. "There was the shotgun, like I said. He was a big man -- tall, wide shoulders, muscles in his forearms. He had on a workman's clothes, and his left thumb was all bruise underneath the nail."

"That sounds like my cousin -- he has bruises of that sort quite a bit," Jean said. "He works in construction, clumsy though he is. He’s always hitting himself in the hand with hammers."

Lucy opened her eyes. "And he smelled like eggs that have gone off. That's all, I think."

"Bad eggs? You mean, like sulphur?" Millie said, and wheeled in unison with Susan to look at the map.

"It's the Thames!" Susan said. "They _are_ coming from the same place, the same _workplace_ , but the place keeps moving, _that's_ why there’s no pattern to the locations.” Millie began measuring distances and calculating walking times to the riverbank from each pin.

“Deputy Commissioner," Jean said, and Wainwright looked up from his notes. "You'll be looking for a construction worker, or someone else who works with a hammer."

"Yes, and who work at locations along the river. The timing works out on all of them, and there's still so much building going on around there,” Millie said. The German bombs had done quite a lot of damage by the Thames.

"One of them will have a bruise under his left thumbnail, a scrape on his right elbow, and a sawn-off shotgun with initials," Lucy added.

“And he’ll take his lunch hour at noon,” Wainwright concluded, smiling all around. “You’ll put us out of work at this rate.”

“Only if you continue working so slowly,” Susan said, and Millie burst out laughing.

Wainwright brandished his notes as he stood. “Thank you, ladies; it has been a pleasure as always. I’ll take this to Parker now, if you’ve nothing to add? It’ll likely be a while before I have any news for you, so you’re welcome to head home while my men take care of the legwork. With luck, we’ll have a suspect for you to identify by tomorrow latest,” he said, nodding at Lucy, and then he was off.

Jean was already carefully setting the desk and files to rights, with Lucy’s help. Millie decided to leave the map as it was; pins were easy to take out, but she might as well leave it until the case was solved for good. 

Susan was still staring at the map, arms cross and looking slightly disgruntled, as she always did when wrapping up a puzzle had been too easy. 

Millie put an arm around her shoulders. “Come on then, a treat on me? I have good news to share.”

Lucy looked up, smiling. “Oh, did the interview go well? I meant to ask, I completely forgot.”

“I got the job!” Millie said, and received a chorus of congratulations. “Climpson’s seems like a good place, and perhaps not quite as dull as they look from the outside,” Millie added, arching her eyebrows.

“Well, that’s promising,” Jean put in dryly.

“Yes, it rather is,” Millie said, smiling. She led the way to the door, and Susan and Lucy laughed as they followed her out.


End file.
